The Fundamentals of Marksmanship: Part I

The next series of posts are going to discuss the fundamentals of marksmanship. There is no such thing as an advanced skill in shooting. Good shooters are the ones who can simply apply the fundamentals consistently and quickly and are competent gun handlers. I know many will cringe at the comparison, but shooting is a lot like golf, both physically and mentally. Physically, the mechanics of the golf swing remains the same from shot to shot. What makes a PGA pro so good is he can consistently perform those mechanics 60 to 70 times a round, where your average golfer is happy if he can put three to four good shots together to par a hole.

Mentally, shooting and golf are the same sport. If you make a bad shot in either – there is nothing that can be done about it. At a TAPS class I attended, Pat McNamara explained that experiencing failure is a requirement for humans to learn, but “you have to learn to fail quickly.” In other words, when you throw a round, you screw up a drill or even make a mistake during a real fight – you need to get over FAST and move on. There is a difference between analyzing your failure and dwelling on it. Figure out what went wrong, quickly correct it and then make it right. Don’t dwell on failure.

Pro athletes use visualization constantly to help spur success. A pro basketball player visualizes a perfect free throw, the ball arching through the air, good follow through, the ball swishing through the net. The shooter should visualize their shots boring dead center through the target as they obtain perfect sight alignment, make a perfect trigger press, reset the trigger and follow through.
Don’t think about missing. When you have to make a hostage shot – you don’t think about missing the hostage because you are telling yourself you’re going to miss. Your focus should be on drilling the bad guy.

Positive thinking and positive self-talk go right along with visualization. I’ll see IPSC shooters talk themselves down at matches constantly. You ask them how they’re shooting and most will reply negatively even if they are actually shooting well. Or just before they step up to shoot a stage, they’ll say something like “I’m sure I’ll screw this up” or “this might get ugly.” When you’re shooting in training or competition, you are training for the real thing on the street. That stuff carries over. Visualize success, when you fail, fail quickly and get over it. The only round that matters is the one you are firing right now.